Tokyo, July 30 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi instructed her Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday to make preparations for a law revision to reduce the consumption tax rate on food to 1 pct for two years from next April. The LDP is set to expedite related internal procedures following Takaichi's instruction, delivered at an extraordinary meeting of the ruling party's executives. The government plans to adopt the tax cut plan early next month and submit related legislation to an extraordinary session of the Diet, the country's parliament, expected to be convened in autumn. "The prime minister said that the funding will definitely be secured without relying on deficit-covering government bonds," LDP Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki told reporters, adding that Takaichi wants the LDP to agree on the tax cut by early August. Earlier on Thursday, Suzuki met with Hiroshi Nakatsuka, his counterpart in the Japan Innovation Party, the LDP's ally, to convey Takaichi's instruction. Takaichi said she had long wanted to cut the consumption tax on food when announcing the dissolution of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, for a snap election at a press conference in January. The LDP pledged to accelerate its discussions on a possible tax reduction in its campaign for the Lower House election in February. But some in the party are cautious about such a measure out of concerns about Japan's fiscal health. The plan to reduce the tax rate to 1 pct for two years was included as a ruling bloc proposal in an interim report compiled by the suprapartisan National Council on Social Security. The ruling parties also called for the introduction of an income-linked benefits program that would provide benefits equivalent to 1 pct consumption tax on food, effectively eliminating the tax burden on food. Five of the six opposition parties taking part in the council, excluding the Conservative Party of Japan, opposed the ruling bloc's 1 pct consumption tax rate plan and called instead for the early introduction of the benefits plan to address inflation. The opposition side's arguments were also included in the interim report. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]